The Best Laid Plans o'Mice and Men
by CdnJAGScribe
Summary: Harm, Mac, Meg, Animal, Kimber and Metalman are sent to Moonlight Falls under orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to find out what's going on with an explosion of supernatural occult in that town. Will they survive the ordeal and will they realize who means the most to them.
1. Chap 1 - Watch Those Occult

"Sims 3 – JAG Crossover – _The Best Laid Plans o'Mice and Men_"

Author: CdnJAGScribe

E-mail:

Rating: M

Classification:

Spoilers:

Summary:

DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. Sims 3 is the property of Electronic Arts/Maxis – and the wonderful brainchild of No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.

**Chapter One - "Watch Those Occult!" **

The _Needs of the Navy_ come foremost when it comes to stationing personnel. That rang in Vice-Admiral Nakamura's mind as he looked over at the large house on a bare lot stuck in the boondocks called Moonlight Falls. Just two weeks earlier he'd been stationed at the Pentagon as one of the flag-staff of the Chief of Naval Operations and he was on track for his fourth star at the next Congressional nominations for "admiral". He had thought he was on a fast-track assignment to the CNO's chair once the current CNO vacated his position (another phrase for retired).

But then the call came in and he was told, "We need you to find out what's going on in Moonlight Falls, there's been news out of the ordinary. If what they're telling us is true, we're going to get ourselves overrun with werewolves and the undead. And that's not something the President wants to hear. We want you and five of your best to go out there and investigate what's going on and report back to us. That way we know whether or not we have to send the military in there to _settle things down_." That was another military term; it meant that they'd send in Special Forces and basically eradicate the town of any thing and anyone that looked suspiciously as though they were occult.

Well, this definitely was a test, to see if he had the wherewithal to figure out the next move - to strategize and solve a problem. And if there was an outbreak of the occult, it was a military problem. The military brass seemed to think that there was nothing that couldn't be solved by liberal usage of .556 NATO blasting holes in anything that looked suspicious and moved. There was another old military saying, "If it moves, shoot it until it stops moving."

But at least he was stuck here with five of his best friends in the military. He looked over at the five and shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, looks like we're going to have to make the best of this situation." Three of them were JAGs, one of them was his old squadron-mate and then there was Phil. Holy geez...he was going to be fun to regulate. Phil had the attitude that he knew what the hell he was doing and consequence be damned; he was going to do it **his** way. Plus on top of that he was a few fruit-loops short of a full bowl. Yeah, Insanity was fun...especially for Phil. Considering the fact that he also talked to himself, at least he'd never be lonely.

Well, the first thing was to blend into the community, or at least try to as much as six military officers could do. First of all, for the males, their haircuts would instantly peg them as military, but there was nothing that they could do about that. They were still under the auspices of Navy Uniform Regulations, but at least they could stay out of uniform as much as possible. So, as ordered, Mac and Meg decided to check out the Elixir shop just to see what was going on, Kimber decided to go get groceries. After all they still needed to eat and well, if they didn't they'd soon find out that they wouldn't be able to keep up their surveillance. When the three women got back, Kimber and Mac set about cooking. Kimber decided to make Autumn Salad, since with no cooking skill, she wasn't about to turn their only living area into a blazing inferno. Mac on the other hand, used the baking oven to bake up some cinnamon rolls, which would be a pleasant aside to rabbit food, at least until some of them had enough skill to be able to cook up a dish using bleeding chunks of deceased mooing animal.

The Vice-Admiral and Harmon Rabb Jr. decided that they were going to go fishing; it was the manly thing to do. So being manly men, the two went out and stood around in the blazing heat for five or six hours, running the risk of dehydration and heat-stroke to toss a line in the water and wile away the time waiting for something to bite, though preferably not by a snake in the grass. Pythons had plenty of teeth and though non-venomous, they were known to inflict severe wounds that could get infected easily necessitating a run to the hospital. And of course there was one brainless snake importer that ended up having a crate of Malayan Kraits go missing...and evidently they'd escaped establishing a breeding colony. _That was fucking joyful_. Malayan Kraits were known to be highly venomous and the only thing that could safely corner and capture them were cats. They were something that you sold off quickly, not because you wanted to make money off them. It was that they were bipolar-psycho. In the daytime, they were generally placid and not prone to biting, but come sundown, holy jumpin' jehosephat, they turned into psychotic nope-ropes and envenomation by one of them would be a one-way ticket to the morgue. Vietnam Veterans used to call kraits, "two-step Charlie" snakes. If you were bitten by one, you took two-steps and keeled over dead. So they were very careful about where they placed their feet.

Meanwhile, Phil, on the other hand, was up to his shoulders in reconstituted food waste trying to pick out items that he could sell or clean up and utilize as furniture. Of all the things the Navy did; was stick them in the middle of no-where with nothing but beds, kitchen appliances, and several washrooms. And they got an expense account that they were only to use for emergency purposes. Considering the temperature was 84.2F...in Moonlight Falls (which is hot for someplace close to the mountains), that food was not sticking around...and it turned into the most rancid smells that Phil's olfactory senses had ever known. And if he had to keep rummaging around in the dumpster, he'd soon have a reunion with the inner contents of his stomach.

By this time, it was a little past "high-noon" roughly about 1:18PM and the sun was beating down mercilessly. So far, Harm had managed to snag a goldfish, a minnow and a rainbow trout. All of which would go into the fridge to keep it from rotting. Vice Admiral Toshio Nakamura had caught a minnow and two goldfish. So they decided to keep fishing. Besides the admiral wasn't going to go home without a trout, the risk of dehydration - it was nothing. Since they were both anglers, Tosh and Harm were able to catch fish rather readily; however, Harm appeared to be gaining skill a lot faster in fishing, than the admiral.

Both Kimber and Meg were reading cooking skill books to be able to cook for the men who were going out to hunt for stuff, whether it be fish, or foul junk. At least they would come home to good meal. But the women also had other tasks to do too. Their jobs would be to reconnoiter the shops and see if they could find out any information on the occult. And the men would take the riskier recon missions, the ones involving contact with the occult: meaning armed and violent conflict.

As it was, the house was bare bones. There wasn't really a piece of furniture in the house. All of that would have to be scrounged around. They weren't to touch the account unless it was for food or emergency purposes. So anything that they were to use in order to furnish the house would have to be found and repurposed or sold if it didn't meet their tastes. Frankly the Navy gave them the bare minimum that they needed to survive their assignment; creature comforts were not a priority. So whatever they needed to provide their rear-ends with some comfort were going to have to be taken care of by the six officers' ingenuity.

So...they were resigned to the fact that they were told by the Navy to plant their rear-ends in Moonlight Falls until otherwise ordered.


	2. Chap 2 - Moonlight Falls

**Chapter Two - "Moonlight Falls"**

Moonlight Falls was an eerie place, even during the daylight hours. It wasn't a hive of activity; in fact, the streets and parks were deserted as there were few recreation places for the residents to even bother going to. On top of that, the only activities were at the supernatural hang-outs and those were for werewolves and vampires, though none of them had run into any yet. It wasn't for the sake of _not trying_. It was just that if there were any supernaturals around, they didn't make themselves known during daylight hours, which meant that they would have to start _playing at night_ if they were going to discover anything about the occult.

As it was Phil returned home about the same time as the other two men did. It was clear what Phil had been doing as they could smell him from a block away, either that or the storm of fruit flies hanging around him, because they thought that they could get some more nourishment from the noxious miasma floating around his head.

As they were all getting kind of hungry, they decided that it would be better to grab a bite to eat, but they told Phil, "You stink, take a shower!". Four O-6s and a flag-rank officer telling him to go clean himself off was not a suggestion to an O-5. It was a direct order, so Commander Phil Burrows went and got himself cleaned off, as directed before proceeding to the fridge to get himself some sustenance. His superiors didn't want to end up revisiting their own breakfast, after all.

During the course of the day, Kimber and Meg had been doing some reading of Book One of the cooking skill, and they managed to finish reading the books, so they felt able enough to do some cooking tomorrow with some of the items that Tosh and Harm had brought home. Of course, the men would have to get rid of the toads at the grocery store tomorrow or go to the elixir shop themselves in order to divest themselves of the slimy amphibians.

Tosh and Harm discussed the events of the day so far and tried to figure out what they needed to do in order to stay on top of things. It wouldn't do to have the occult know anything about them or find a way to corral the officers in their abode. They needed to be on their guard more than anything. If they were unsuccessful, they could potentially lose their lives or even worse. "I think there's such a thing as a cure serum" Harm indicated to Tosh.

"Then, we need to get those whenever they're in stock in the elixir shop. It doesn't matter the cost. If you get bitten by a vampire or maimed by any occult, the cure elixir is the only thing that's going to save you from becoming one of them." Tosh replied grimly. "That and if we find any silver, we figure out how to smelt them down into bullets because if we don't, the weres will take us out."

After dinner, Phil, having eaten, went out to get the insects that he'd managed to collect during his adventures in the dumpster over to the science center and recoup some money for his efforts. There had to be some pay-off for spending most of the day up to his shoulders, upside down in rotting goop. Yeah, there was, although the scientists belly-ached about paying out for common insects, they still paid out and Phil was able to get some cheese so that they could potentially have either mac n' cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches. Either one was fine, to Phil. He didn't have the exotic palate of the vice-admiral and his superior officers who had the income to be able to afford to go eat out.

With 22 years of service, Tosh was making over §14,900 a month as a vice-admiral which came out to a pretty good chunk of change, considering that most of the population didn't earn nearly that much. But then again, the trade-off was putting your life on the line for your country. Every serviceman who dons a uniform, in essence, writes a blank check to their country payable up to and including his life, in the line of service, so having served for as long as he'd had, the pay was commensurate with his military experience. Phil, on the other hand, as an O-5, was only making just a little over §6500/month.

When Phil stopped at the grocery store, he ran into an occult with wings. When he was done his grocery shopping, he engaged her in conversation. He figured to himself _Fairies are supposed to be the good guys, right?_. Yeah, guess he's never run into an evil fairy before. If he had, he'd be singing a different tune. Well, Marigold Maldano was more than interested in talking to him...in fact so much so that she started spewing hearts and harps. She knew instantly that she was talking to a human, but he intrigued her.

It probably wasn't too wise for Phil to get that enthralled by a fairy, however, he figured, to heck with torpedoes, full steam ahead and turned on his charm. Who says insanity isn't good for anything? Of course, Pappy Wolff just happened by...and well, you know just how keen their noses are. Pappy Wolff was clearly in werewolf form and snarled as he walked past Phil, his nose crinkling, "Take another bath, you stink!"

Phil decided the better course of action was to get out of there before anything happened. Despite his insanity, he still had enough common sense to know that if he fought the werewolf, he'd come out on the losing end and possibly even taking a cursed bite. So he took his leave of Ms. Maldano and headed home.

Meg on the other hand, knew exactly what she was doing. She was planning to get her hooks into Tosh as soon as possible as she knew that Kimber was probably planning to make a move. After all, she'd seen them make googly-eyes at each other. And that was a warning signal if Meg was reading it correctly. Yeah, she was going to outmanoeuvre that female naval aviator and snag her man. Plus the fact that like Harm, he came with gold wings and lots of gold rings on his sleeves (those big admiral's stripes on Tosh's uniform had to count for twice the number of four-stripes that Harm had). So she snuck into Tosh's room...and smirked at him, "Just came in for a bit of conversation. It's a bit boring sitting in the dark in my room." Damn the Navy for not allowing them to buy themselves some lights for their bedrooms. Well at least it was Phil up to his neck in nauseating rotting foodstuffs and not her. If he found some lights in the dumpster, at least they'd be able to fix it up and use it.

In any case, since there were no chairs in the room either, she decided to curl up on the bed beside Tosh and have their conversation there. Half of Tosh's mind was going a mile a minute trying to keep abreast of what she was talking about as well as making sure that he stayed on the right side of the UCMJ. _Could this technically be considered as contravening Article 133_? _I mean, she's a JAG right, she should know the ins and outs of the Uniform Code of Military Justice...and I don't want to step on the wrong side of the fraternization rule_.

While the other half was going, _Gosh, she's pretty..._ Yeah...stop right there...or you're going to end up with a Conduct Unbecoming an Officer charge. Besides, she's your subordinate at this point in time. Start thinking with your other head instead of the one males usually think with.


	3. Chap 3 - Embrace the Suck

**Chapter Three - "Embrace the Suck"**

Being military officers, mornings started at 0500hrs, though of course, since they really weren't in the "chain of command" of the regular Navy. The rules were slightly more relaxed, but as they say, "early to bed; early to rise". Phil was definitely an early-riser though. He got up at 0430, had his breakfast which was an apple pie that Harm had cooked (he was a natural cook, after all (he was a gastric connoisseur on the TV show and could cook up any meal - unless it was _Harm's Meatless Meatloaf _(that was a standing joke on the TV show and if the Sims had meatloaf as one of the recipes able to be cooked, I'd be throwing that in there too)),

...then it was back out to the dumpsters to try and pick through some more garbage and rotting food to try to pick out the _gems in the rough_. In the past two days, Phil had thrown up more than he'd had after tying on a few too many beers while on liberty at Mama Rosita's near Subic Bay (well, it was either that or the _adobo_ had gone bad and had given him food poisoning).

When he lifted the lid of the dumpster, a wave of noxious stench assailed his nostrils. _Nope, it hadn't been emptied from last night_; he thought to himself and then realized that it was only 0450hrs. Garbage pick-up daily though it was, wasn't for yet another four hours. With his mood sinking, he sighed, heaved himself up on the ledge of the dumpster and stuck his head in the decaying waste. What an utterly joyful life he was leading; what a come-down from the glories of flying a Mach 2+ jet fighter and landing on aircraft carriers; dress whites and gold wings, to being stuck out here in the middle of Boondocksville, USA. picking through garbage. The US Navy should use this as a detailer's invitation to new recruits. "_**Join the Navy, See the World, Smell the Unique Culture**_." Boy oh, boy, Shore Duty was a blast. ~sarcasm~ Made Phil wish that he was back in the Fleet.

The women headed over to the elixir shop, it seemed as though the proprietor was human, though that didn't account for much as who knew where their allegiances lay. Mac, who was clairvoyant, kind of knew what to look for and counselled Kimber on what to ask the proprietor without giving away their motives. The proprietor didn't seem like she let on or the fact that three humans asking for cure elixir didn't provoke any alarm in her. However unfortunately, there was none in stock at this particular time, so Kimber said, "Thanks, maybe we'll try again tomorrow..."

Tosh and Harm had gone fishing over at a new spot at the sandy banks near the ocean and well, they had a bit more luck, with luminous salamanders (which weren't on the menu) nor were the jelly fish that were a painful catch. Luckily they weren't box jellyfish of the tropical variety or that would have been a death sentence: they have lethal toxins - the venom causes cells to become porous enough to allow potassium leakage, causing hyperkalemia, which can lead to cardiovascular collapse and death as quickly as within 2 to 5 minutes; not something you want to come in contact with.

By this time, the ladies had come back home and were reading skill books that they'd bought at the bookstore on the way back. At least it was something to do and increasing their skills would be a boon to the entire group. Gardening would help in insuring that they had enough food stocks to weather an assault by the occult. In fact they had to fortify their home just to make sure that werewolves and vampires couldn't attack the building. So far the occult were unaware of the reason of their presence and the vice-admiral, Harm and the others planned to keep it that way.

...and Phil was enjoying himself less and less...considering that he now heartily wished that he no longer had a stomach, whose contents he kept making a re-acquaintance with every two hours. But dedication to duty was what Phil was good at, regardless of his propensity to take short-cuts, and he still kept at it - digging through assorted disgusting muck to try to find the few items that they could use or pawn off in order to give them some working money so that they were able to stock the fridge with food.

Meg explained to Tosh that they needed some more duties other than just sitting around the house reading skill books. Tosh nodded, but he said that he was reluctant to show his hand in terms of taking a more active approach to reconnoitring the area at this present time. If they showed their hand too early, they would lose the tactical advantage. Meg didn't like that, but she saw the strategy in the position that Tosh was taking. And he'd been to War College, so he'd know strategy.

Since Tosh and Harm weren't happy with their fish haul for the day, they decided to go back out to yet another fishing hole on the far side of town. Tosh made a command decision for the entire group to have individual vehicles, so the Navy sent over six Yomoshoto Evasions; a souped up Japanese clone of the coupe version of the Chevy Malibu which the Navy used as service vehicles. And if they had to tangle with some occult, they'd need that horsepower to make a getaway.

Well, at least the fish were biting at this location - Tosh and Harm managed to get quite a few fish from this location.

As night fell on the second day in Moonlight Falls, Phil was still head first in the dumpster, looking for items and hoping to the Watcher that he wouldn't upchuck and aspirate garbage, incurring a raging lung infection that would require hospitalization to treat.


	4. Chap 4 - Seeking Permission from the CNO

**Chapter Four - "Seeking Permission from the CNO"**

The Chief of Naval Operations certainly did his share of overtime, because when Tosh made the tele-call connection to the Pentagon, he was still there and wanted to speak to him.

"So, Admiral, have you found anything out about what's going on out there?" the CNO asked Tosh, "I know two days isn't much time and I'm sure that we have to give you more time, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff are antsy and the President has been harassing me for an update every few hours."

Tosh sighed, "Sir, We're going to have to dig in to this deeper. I'm sure that the problem is wide-spread in this town. I can feel it in my bones. There's something suspicious about this town. The weather is completely out of the ordinary. In fact the whole pallor of this town's atmosphere is completely not of the norm."

"Do we have to send in the National Guard or SpecOps?" was the next question out of the CNO's mouth.

"Not yet, sir, but I'd have them on Alert Fifteen." The CNO was a former aviator, so he knew exactly what Animal was talking about.

"Very well, keep me advised of the situation, Admiral..." The CNO was rather intuitive...because he looked at Tosh and said, "You got something on your mind, Animal?" as the vice-admiral hadn't cut the connection and the four-star was curious. That familiarity of using the call-sign let Tosh know that the admiral wanted to speak with him off the record.

"Sir, three women and three men in the same house...well..." It seemed like the four-star had a smirk on his face as he heard this. "Things have a tendency to manifest in high-stress situations."

"I see..." the CNO said wryly looking over at the vice-admiral. "...so you're asking me to tell the JAG to look the other way? Is it with that pretty blonde JAG lawyer?" The CNO hadn't been a recipient of the Medal of Honor over Nam for nothing. He was sharp as a tack and honed in the problem. "I noticed she was eyeing you in that briefing."

Tosh felt a heat of embarrassment crawl up his spine. "Sir, I'm just saying that things happen and..."

"Damn it, Animal, don't pussyfoot around it. You like the Captain and you want to get to know her better. Don't worry, I'll have a talk with Lieutenant General Cresswell and make sure that he understands that under my auspices, he is to look the other way should relationships develop between you and the young JAG Captain or between any of your subordinates. We've stuck you all in a nasty situation and I'm sure that the stress can drive you to seek solace in different ways. It's the least the Navy can do, having put you in this untenable position."

_Thank God for having friends in high places. _Tosh thought to himself. One of the nice things about serving together was that the CNO was able to deal with situations that arose. He was the Battle Group Commander when Animal was a squadron CO. "Thank you, sir..." Tosh said quietly. He knew that it was a big favor that the CNO was granting him. It nullified the ramifications of fraternization, should a relationship develop between him and Meg or for that matter, if Harm decided to make the move on Mac or if Kimber managed to lose her mind and take up a relationship with Phil "Metalman" Burrows.

"good..."the CNO stated, a tone of dismissal in his voice, "If that's all..."

"Yes, sir..."

"Well, then you six have a good night."

"Aye-aye, sir. Good-night, sir."

Tosh's mind spun for a while...before settling down long enough for him to head upstairs and hit the rack.

After all, morning would come quickly enough and Tosh needed to have his wits around him especially in a potentially dangerous situation like this.

Kimber and Harm were the first ones up the next morning and each had their morning repast. Harm had cooked a fresh batch of pancakes - as a vegetarian, Harm didn't like meat, but tolerated seeing it and smelling it, because he wasn't a militant vegetarian and about to insist that everyone end up eating vegetarian food. Different strokes for different folks. But he certainly didn't mind playfully teasing certain people, namely Mac and Animal for their propensity to love a thick, juicy, oily, dripping burger, namely from Beltway Burgers. And they in-turn roasted him about his _Harm's Meatless Meatloaf_. It was the one thing that he wasn't able to perfect yet. Animal called it a good substitute for a doorstop while Mac stated that it should come with an MSDS warning classification as a Category B, UN 3373 biohazard. The latter one stung: _"You could have just said 'I don't like your meatloaf, Harm.' You didn't have to be insulting!"_ But stinging insult aside, he smiled as he remembered that repartee with Mac.

...and that kept him smiling as he headed out to the grocery store to get rid of his toads and then headed to the elixir shop to annoy the bees, where he promptly got stung and had to deal with the stinging pain for the rest of the day.

Meg spent the day at the science station honing her science skill. After all, she had a scientific bent as well as her computer skills. And it would help them if they needed to find out what was causing the outbreak of supernatural occult in the town. And her computer skills would help in breaking into the main government office computers to see if there were any files and information on the occults that they could use to their advantage.

...and of course, the CNO wanted to speak to the both of them about what their current status was, after all he had to do his due diligence if he was going to shield them from any fall-out. Meg looked over at Tosh in question as Tosh looked back at her, and nodded. "Yes, sir..." she stated to the CNO. "We will keep you advised of any change in our status."

...and it certainly appeared that things had changed between the two of them, since they both stepped out of the house...to get some privacy.

"...so we have a green-light, from the Chief of Naval Operations." Tosh said while Meg breathed a sigh of relief. "Just so long as our relationship doesn't constitute a detriment to the chain-of-command." The two of them just got a chance to have a few quiet moments together...and despite the fact that it was cloudy and dark, they just sat on the ground watching the sky, sitting very close together.

Which of course led to an interesting night...of maneuvers which left them exhausted ending up together...sleeping the night away.

...in Meg's room.


	5. Chap 5 - NotOne Word

**Chapter Five - "Not...A Word"**

Evidently Meg and Tosh had not been as quiet as they would have liked during their _nocturnal exercises_ and he'd received a raised eye-brow and a smirk from Harm when the two walked into the kitchen in the morning. "Not...a word...Captain." growled Tosh under his breath since it was all that Harm could do to stop from breaking out in a fit of laughter.

"Aye-aye, sir..." Harm said...his expression belying the respect that was supposed to be in those words. "Not...a single word will escape my lips...sir."

"You're pushing it, Rabb."

"Sir...aye, sir..."

Meg was beet-red with embarrassment, just grabbing her plate of lemon cobbler and heading to the table.

Ignoring the warning glance from Tosh, Harm forged ahead, "Sir. I trust that the CNO is aware of the situation?"

Knowing exactly what Rabb was beating around the bush about, the vice-admiral nodded, "Yes, CNO Pointer has had this matter brought to his attention. He is going to be asking the JAG to look the other way. This goes for the six of us. Captain." He inclined his head knowingly, "Should you choose to do so, the JAG will not level Article 133 charges against us for entering into a relationship with whomever you choose of our present company, present company excluded." the admiral indicated that Meg and he were an item by a sweep of his hand towards the dinner table. Harm grinned at the admiral.

...and then it was back to the tasks at hand. Meg trying her hand at creating potions. Presumably there was a _bladder flow_ potion in there which would be good at incapacitating occults at least for the temporary measure. It would at least give them a chance to flee the situation. Mac and Kimber took over the science stations and Tosh went to work out for four hours with the Universal Gym doing some bench press as well as pec presses. There was a lot to be said for being fit and muscular: it would give the opponent some pause to think about whether he wanted to do this or not - the intimidation factor was real. This was no ordinary war. The opponents they were up against were faster, stronger, and more lethal than any opponent that they'd ever faced in combat. These opponents could go toe to toe with Spetznaz and end up coming out the victor and Tosh wasn't about to let his women and men get into that situation. Unorthodox though the situation was, they were still his subordinates and still under his command and as such, he was duty-bound to protect them, even if they hadn't had the common bond of friendship.

Tosh had been out of the loop for a while, tied to a desk at the Pentagon and as such, his fitness level had suffered. When one was flying on a regular basis, g-tolerance was measured by how much muscle mass you had. If you had a bull-neck, you could crank out 6+Gs with no problem other than a minor graying out. You have to remember that 6Gs was 6 times the force of gravity pressing down on you when you yanked your Tomcat into a hard break while trying to evade a lock-on by enemy radar. That meant anything on your head...as well as your entire body weighed six times what it really weighed and if you weren't physically fit enough to yank the stick around, you'd be digging a hole and six men would be carrying your casket while taps played mournfully and your squadron mates would cluck their tongues sombrely saying "what a great driver you were, but you screwed the pooch; _sure glad it wasn't me_".

And if someone launched one of those telephone poles with wings and a high-explosive nose, you better be goddamned sure that you could crank out as many Gs as you can to break the lock or you and your aircraft would be reduced to a greasy blob of suet and spare parts expanding in mid-air.

Tosh was so into his workout he didn't even hear the small explosion at the potion table. Meg was certainly nonplussed to say the least as well as singed. "Well, I guess I'd better not use THAT combination again." she said audibly while Mac and Kimber looked over at her wondering what that bang was. Luckily there was a shower there, so she was able to get all that soot off her.

Harm went fishing and wasn't there long before he ended up reeling in a black goldfish. That provided him with an opportunity called _Say Hello to My Little Fish_, those black goldfish were ornery as heck and kind of like that M4 with M203 grenade launcher that was in that Brian De Palma movie, they weren't the type of fish you'd want to make an acquaintance of. Let's just say a rabid Rottweiler would be friendlier than that fish. So it was _over_ to the police department to drop off a decided pissed-off black goldfish and the sooner he got it off his hands the better. Thank goodness that thing didn't have teeth.

Meg was, however, successful as she managed to create a mood enhancer potion, though it wasn't the Bladder Flow incapacitation potion that they were looking for. Maybe that Mood Enhancer potion might put a more pleasant twist on those ever-grouchy werewolves and thus prevent them from having to perforate said werewolf with hot lead.

And Tosh worked on his body. Yes, Meg was going to be very pleased with the results. ~smirk~

And Phil...well...Phil was up to his eyeballs in rotting goop. Wondering how the hell he always managed to get dragooned into these things. "I could be pleasantly sitting on a lanai in Pearl drinking a Mai-Tai while on liberty instead of inhaling rotting plasma fruit vapors and getting sick to my stomach. Did I ever mention **I hate vampires**. I hate vampires so much, I'm going to stake the next one I see." He popped his head out of the dumpster to shout to no one in particular. "Has anyone seen that bloody Eddie, whatever the hell his last name is, around here anywhere. I've got a stick with his name on it!"

He snorted, "Figures that sparkly fruitcake won't make an appearance. Any of you other fanged butt-hole-munches wanna have a go at me?" Nope, evidently not.


	6. Chap 6 - Camaraderie and Duty

**Chapter Six - "Camaraderie and Duty"**

One of the things that the six realized was that it was getting close to the full moon. Werewolves were affected by the full-moon and they were the most dangerous of the occults that they had to deal with. Vicious and cunning, they could and would savage anyone that they took offence to. And the full moon caused their form to change for the duration that the full moon was up and visible. This was also a weakness since the whole town would know who was a were. The Alpha Pack Leader was also the one that had the capacity to give you a cursed bite. So they had to be careful. And Tosh discussed this with his subordinates at dinner time. They needed to be on their guard at full moon. "I want everyone equipped with M-16A3s, locked and loaded. one in the chamber on your person at all times during full moon. If they breach the perimeter, we're toast otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Aye-aye...sir!" Tosh received a chorus of assent from his subordinates.

"If we have to go out to do perimeter patrols, we go in pairs. Each one covering the other; just watch your fields of fire and make sure that you have a clear shot if you need to take it. Weapons hot when you're on the perimeter."

"Yes, sir!"

"If any of the occults breaches the perimeter, you are clear to take him out with due prejudice."

"They may be mean, but they can't outrun a bullet, sir." Phil stated, a satisfied smirk on his face. "Any chance that we can get crossbows and wooden arrows for the Biters."

Kimber smirked at him, "Weres or vampires, they both bite."

Phil looked disgustedly at Kimber "Thanks...better to call them walking leeches then?"

"Oh, you mean those pale undead guys with sharp fangs." she smirked at him.

"Pretty obvious, ain't it?"

Tosh looked over at Harm, "You know, I think Burrows has a good idea. We could use crossbows. It'll mean not having to close with the enemy and keep us out of their arm's reach. Two shooters with .556 and a crossbow. The .556 NATO will incapacitate the vampire and the arrow will stake him. Adios, Vlad the Impaler. If they set one foot inside our perimeter, it's going to be showtime, that we're not going to go down easy and they may very well lose a good number of their kind."

Phil snarled ferally, "If Eddie Cullen shows his face, I get first dibs to put a stake through him." The three women present in the room laughed at him...

...and Tosh smirked, "So...Burrows, did he steal your girlfriend? I thought he was playing footsies with that...uh...werewolf... and anyways, isn't that a woman's bedroom fantasy script or somethin'? I don't think he's real."

Phil grumbled, "Well, I hated any mention of that movie, the last three women I dated wouldn't shut up about it...so I figured that pale sparkly foofoo would be somewhere around here with the rest of his sparkly buddies and I might get a chance to stake a couple of them after having my ears assaulted by that drivel."

"The company you keep, Burrows..." Harm snorted sarcastically.

After the meeting broke up and the rest of the group went to make sure that their sidearms and rifles were cleaned and prepped for the next night's festivities, Meg and Tosh had their own little private celebration. Thank goodness for the CNO. Any reservations that they had about initiating a relationship had vanished like the early morning mist when it meets the hot sun's rays after sunrise.

Their little ad hoc family had grown by two family members, an adopted Rottweiler named Atlas who was aggressive and would make a good guard dog as well as a hunter of gemstones and Charlie the cat; a stray that had wandered up to their gate and yowled piteously until he was let inside by a soft-hearted Meg Austin who had showered affection onto Charlie: in return was reciprocated by the fluffy male cat. It was a long hair and a rare one at that since it was a calico: most calicos being female. Since Tosh had grown up with dogs as well as cats, he didn't mind in the slightest and hey, if he was going to open up the house to anyone, better it be the four-footed kind than an occult whose allegiances he was not privy to or, for that matter, to a human he didn't know.

Meg and Tosh knew that they were not going to get a whole heckuva lot of sleep the next night; as it was the full moon. They would probably be kept up the majority of the late hours of the night ensuring that their perimeter was secure. So they hit the sack early and got in some very intimate snuggling time; and some skin to skin contact, with nothing coming in between the feel of the sheets to bare skin. Needless to say, it was a comforting night for Meg to be nestled in her lover's arms.

The day of the full moon cast an eery pale green glow on the ground...and the ominous green-tinged clouds were a supernatural omen. Harm felt an inner hunch that he needed to check the elixir shop and headed out. He hit pay-dirt as there was a cure-elixir being sold by the proprietor and he was able to get his hands on it. Tosh had told him that there was no hard limit to the purchase price; just get a cure elixir or as many as he could in his hands. But there was only one...but that was enough for the time being. They would have other opportunities that they could try to acquire more or start learning alchemy themselves: it was one foot in the deep end of pool, but sometimes one had to swim with the sharks to get an idea of what the situation was like.

Meg and Tosh got in some intimate time before getting dressed to go downstairs to get their breakfast, but not before a passionate kiss. The two officers were in love and well, with no UCMJ to have to deal with thanks to their friend at the top of their rank structure, they took every available opportunity to further their relationship in every sense of the word.

...and mainly because tonight would mean that they would be too busy securing the perimeter to have any sort of intimacy.


	7. Chap 7 - We've Been Sold A Rotten Bill

**Chapter Seven - "We've Been Sold a Rotten Bill of Goods"**

Daytime was an uneasy time as the six knew that the closer the clock ticked to the time that the full moon rose into the sky, the danger grew. At least during the daylight hours, they knew where the threats were coming from and could see them clearly. With the approach of night, the darkness would swallow them up and they wouldn't be able to see well, whereas the vampires and the werewolves would be able to keenly see and smell where their opponents were. Mac had been in a firefight before at the embassy in Indonesia where a mob tried to storm the embassy after not liking the judiciary decision on a case where a Marine was accused of gross misconduct with a minor. And she knew that it was pretty much like that situation...however instead of an angry mob, it would be hordes of weres and vampires, all of whom had the capability to kill, severely wound or even worse turn them from human into something that they had nightmares thinking about.

Plans were made to replenish the foodstocks and stock the fridge so that they could withstand a siege. Tosh was the highest ranking officer in charge, Harm was next in seniority so the two had a conference with each other. "I think we need to put in an interior perimeter wall so that anyone who comes over the first one has to scale a second. That just might slow them down enough that we can get off a shot or two before they overwhelm us." Harm suggested.

"Good idea, Harm, but I don't think we have the time to build one before the moon rises at least this time around. We'll have to wait for sunrise and start construction then of our secondary perimeter. I think we should also have M134 7.62x51NATO emplacements along the perimeter. If we start chucking hot 7.62 in their general direction with the rate of fire at over 6000 rounds a minute, they might start thinking twice about trying to breach our wall." the vice-admiral replied nodding, however, a sign that he thought the suggestion from Harm was a good one, just that they didn't have time to do that before tonight's Full Moon.

"And quite a few of them are going to go down." Harm responded, "Tracer rounds."

"Negative. I don't want them to be able to see where the rounds are coming from. Use the barrel of your weapon to sight."

An initial wolf-howl that rent the air at around 1730hrs brought the officers the information that the transition had started. Despite the cold chill down the spine of the officers at the inhuman howl, the comforting feel of the M-16A3s in their hands, provided a sense of security. Phil and Mac took first patrol, well, Mac because she knew and prescouted the lay of the land so that they would be able to figure out exactly where the defences needed to be shored up. The weakest structure point of the fence was the security gate. Wrought iron, but still able to be ripped from the mounts, it was certainly easier to try to breach than scaling the walls. The fountain could be utilized as cover, just in case the vampires were smart enough to carry weapons themselves.

...and Phil, just plainly because he was insane and wanted to have something interesting to do.

"Sir, permission to back them up?" Kimber asked as she hefted her M-16 and glanced meaningfully towards the door that the other two had left.

"Granted...keep your eyes peeled."

"Aye-aye, sir." and with that Kimber headed for the door, rifle at the ready to go back up her friends.

Harm stated, "I know that this is dangerous, but we need to get an idea of the lay of the land beyond the perimeter during this full moon."

"Are you suggesting a LRRP, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol? And exactly where?"

"Sir, might I suggest that we take a run down to the grocery store and see exactly what's going on, under the pretext of buying more food?"

Tosh was uneasy, but he knew that they needed more information. At least they were in civilian clothes and well, people did go hunting, even with military style weapons. "That might be a good idea...we could use the intel to our advantage, Meg. Harm" he said, looking over at her then over at Harm.

They exited the house...indicating to the three on point. "Hold the fort, we're going on recon to get some intel!"

"Aye sir!"

"Safeties on while in the car. Don't want to get perforated by 5.56 tonight."

"Aye, sir."

When they reached the grocery store, they found humans mingling with occult with no sign of hostility or aggression, other than the occasional worried stares at the weapons in the hands of the ones who just arrived, meaning them. Tosh and Harm took up positions. One by the rear of their car, one by the hood. There was tension in the air as the occult in the crowd and the officers sized each other up. But none of them made a move towards each other.

Meg headed into the store, her M-16 by her side as she went into get a few more items to stock the fridge with.

Meanwhile, outside, the humans were looking over at the officers outside, "Hey...you one of them gun-rights guys?" Tosh was sizing them up and gave them a stony glare. "Nice guns, man..." No response. "2nd Amendment rights, huh?"

When Meg came back out, the officers tensed, hands on their weapons as she cut a path, "Excuse me...thank you, Excuse me..." through a group of them. Not one raised a hand towards her. Whether it be vampire, werewolf, fairy or otherwise.

Witches were pretty much undetectable because they looked nothing like the ones in the Wizard of Oz, they looked pretty much like any other human on the street with nothing to give them away other than if you were to see them in the act of casting a spell. And Tosh wasn't about to go up to one of them and go, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" Yeah, that wouldn't go over well and he didn't want to be turned into a toad. Flies might be an alright source of protein, but it certainly wasn't something his gastronomical palate was inclined to sample. As Meg moved the car out to the road, Tosh and Harm walked backwards towards the road, their eyes not moving from the crowd, M-16s at the ready. Not a single one of crowd moved.

When Tosh got into the vehicle, he looked over at Harm and Meg silently for a long while as Meg drove them all back to the house and he finally spoke as Meg pulled up to the house. "Meg, Harm, I think the Pentagon sold us a spoiled bill of goods."

"Sir?"

"Form up...Listen up!" he stated as he got out of the car and the gate closed behind them as they stepped back onto friendly ground.

The women and men under his command assembled as he stood there with one hand holding his rifle and a contemplative look on his face as the green tinged moonlight cast a menacing glow on his head.

"Now, I'm just a beat up old combat veteran..." Tosh stated, "And maybe I've lost a few braincells in my day...whether it be at Olongapo during deployment or bashing my head against the canopy a couple times too many during a knife-fight in a phonebooth, but I can tell you this much, something doesn't add up here in the Pentagon's story."

"Sir?" the air of question was in the faces of those assembled looking back at him.

"What I can see here, is a Sanctuary. A place where occult go to get away from humans. They're not assembling here to conduct an all-out attack, they just want to live their own lives. The LRRP told me one thing. Nobody's out here to attack anybody, other than us. And that's not going to happen.

When I took my oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, I didn't take it to promote speciesism; the superiority of humans over everyone else; the rights of humans over anyone else. The Constitution of the United States of America is supposed to protect everyone in the United States. When I took up my officer's oath in 1980, I promised to defend everyone, not just a select few. These people just want to live their lives and the government seems to think that they're a threat when all they want to do is send their kids to school, cook up a nice meal, and have a great day just like the rest of us. We've been sold a lie...and told to come here and stir up unrest. So that leaves us a choice, do we break our oaths to protect and defend the Constitution and the rights of these people to have a life or do we _follow orders_. That worked out really well in 1946 at Nuremburg.

Go on inside...all of you, I don't think we have anything to fear from these people."


	8. Chap 8 - Early to Bed Early to Rise

**Chapter Eight - "Early to Bed; Early to Rise"**

The next morning was back up and "at 'em"; the viewpoint on the town having changed. Since they were there for the long haul, they looked at integrating themselves into the town activities as well as military personnel were able to. That usually meant having to deal with daily chores and other things of necessity. It also meant that they had to try to get along with the townsfolk as best they could. It was no longer an adversarial situation. They were going to do what it took to follow the Constitution and protect the rights of the townspeople.

Meg was back down at the potion table trying to create some more potions that could possibly give them an advantage. They hadn't been in contact with Admiral Pointer since the last conversatoin and the revelation of the position of the townsfolk had not been disseminated to the Pentagon. They knew however if they didn't make contact with Command Authority soon, they would be looked for and they didn't know what they could do to prevent a bloodbath if the military came looking. Six would not be able to fight back against a full-scale Marine Infantry Division along with its assembled firepower, including Marine Air Support.

Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, Fairies; any occult or not, no matter how fast, how strong, how lethal - were absolutely no match for the combined firepower of a US military offensive. They wouldn't be up against one soldier to one occult, they'd be put up against a rain of molten lead and high-explosives that would rip the occults' offensive to shreds.

Tosh had stated his position and his friends believed in him. Tosh had the tactical knowledge to be able to mount a possible defence of the town against the combined military offensive, should it come down to that. Highly familiar with tactics (one didn't just study naval combat tactics in War College) you learned how all the services combined to work together to win a war and that would be what they would be facing should the military choose to eliminate the town instead of sitting down at the negotiating table.

Kimber and Mac decided that they were going to work on their martial arts so that they would have a physical upper-hand should they be required to utilize thir hand-to-hand knowledge. Tosh was a black belt in both Kung Fu and MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) and thus was able to keep Mac current to USMC standards. And when they sparred, he was unrelenting. There was no letting up in a real life hand-to-hand combat situation; you walked away when the other person was incapacitated and no longer moving (preferably not breathing either) crumpled on the ground.

And everyone did their part in keeping themselves in shape. Tosh and Harm went at the pull-up bars and Phil pumped iron in order to keep fit. Of course, Phil, being insane, just had to use heavy clothing in order to cut more weight and make himself more lean and mean, by wearing winter clothes while working out. The rest of them wondered if Phil was going to pass out.

Stockpiling rations was also important. As far as they knew, until they got back to Pointer, their whole town was under siege. So Tosh and the rest of the ad hoc military family headed out to the grocery store in order to stock up, meats as well as vegetables. They were going to need it.

Meanwhile the only two who were relaxed were Atlas (the dog) and Charlie (the cat). Yeah, relaxed was another term for curled up showing ones' happy bits to all and sundry. Just what everyone wanted to see. But of course, both Atlas and Charlie were pulling their own weight. They kept the household running, with Atlas bringing in gemstones of varying but highly expensive values (when cut) and Charlie brought in insects, birds, lizards, snakes and other animals that could potentially be sold for a decent return, including those confounded Malayan Kraits. The sooner they were able to get those venomous buggers into zoo hands, the happier the populace would be.

And considering that they didn't have to worry about the UCMJ any more, Meg and Tosh took every advantage that they could; besides it was certainly a lot more comfortable sleeping together than in a cold bed all alone. After all, they say skin-to-skin is the best way for warming someone up who is hypothermic. It could be said: _that certainly a stretch in this case._

In the morning after eating breakfast, Harm washed the dishes thoroughly. Dishwashing at the best of times is an onerous task. What most people wouldn't give in order to just be able to rinse things and shove it in the dishwasher, but the military crew didn't have such luxuries. They had to wash things by hand and well, Harm drew the short-straw this time around. As Mac pointed out, drawing straws more often than not, would favor the person holding the straws, as they would know: which was the long one; which was the short one. Well, for Harm it didn't matter, he was the one who got stuck doing it.

...then he headed off to the elixir shop to look for more cure elixir, annoy the bees and this time, watch an iguana sitting on the ground perusing the shoe leather covered feet in front of it, wondering what they were.

Phil was back over at the dumpster by the grocery store. Oh, what fun. Reconstituted food waste from the diner, coupled with out of date, rotting produce from the grocery store combined to make a scent that would cause a maggot to throw up. And Phil got to dunk himself headfirst in that odiferous bin. That really made his day and the consequent swearing and cuss words that came out of his mouth would make any religious person cross themselves, offer up a prayer of penitence just by hearing it. If they had kids with them, they would end up hastily walking the other way; all the while making it a moral lesson to not use foul language in public where other children could hear and possibly get their aural canals scoured. Bottle brushes don't work too well on one's ear canals; just a public service announcement.

Harm was now back from the elixir store and was in the process of learning some alchemy. If they were able to get their magical elixirs up to a high-standard, they could generate some offense with some of the elixirs. Has anyone ever tried to shoot while being buzzed by angry bees? That would probably affect anyone's concentration. As would an incessant need to eliminate. There were probably others in there as well, but those were the two that Harm had found so far.

Since the honey replenished every sixty minutes, Mac headed down to the elixir shop to see what was available and to try her hand at getting some honey. Unlike most beekeepers, who covered themselves from head-to-toe, it appeared that she only opted to cover her face which left a good deal of area that the annoyed bees (having been annoyed twice that day; first by Harm and then by her) could attack...and she certainly got herself stung. That would smart for twenty-four hours.

Tosh decided that they would end up wearing camo on full moons and for the next full moon, they would do so. So the Type I work uniform was pulled out of mothballs and worn at the home (since it was technically their military installation) and they wore it around the home along with their rifles in easy access. The Navy Type I uniform was highly unpopular as it didn't camouflage anyone...unless they fell overboard off a boat...and frankly that was the last place you'd want to be camouflaged if that situation happened.

Phil, Harm and Tosh spent some time in the alchemy room trying to up their knowledge in alchemy. And Tosh utilized that moment to take a Young Again potion. They would all need to be at their strongest, and most youthful in order to stand a chance if the military staged an all out assault on their position.

As Tosh was an adult enroute to being an elder, being able to go right back to the beginning of young adult was an invigorating feeling. It felt like he could quite possibly wrestle a bear and win, although he wasn't about to try that, but there wree other things that he could do and Meg would be right there with him taking her own potion and the two of them would have their whole lives together.

And take her potion she did...in their bedroom which technically put their life ages pretty much on par with each other when the transformation took place.

...and of course that prompted a steamy make-out session in the shower. Hey, why not kill two birds with one stone and get satisfyingly CLEAN at the same time?


End file.
